A `warp drive' with more reasonable total energy requirements

TL;DR

This paper proposes a modified warp drive spacetime that significantly reduces energy requirements, making it comparable to large traversable wormholes, while satisfying quantum inequalities and maintaining key advantages.

Contribution

It introduces a minor geometric modification to Alcubierre's warp drive, lowering total energy needs to feasible astrophysical scales.

Findings

Total negative mass needed is about a few solar masses.

Positive energy is of a similar magnitude.

The geometry satisfies quantum inequalities.

Abstract

I show how a minor modification of the Alcubierre geometry can dramatically improve the total energy requirements for a `warp bubble' that can be used to transport macroscopic objects. A spacetime is presented for which the total negative mass needed is of the order of a few solar masses, accompanied by a comparable amount of positive energy. This puts the warp drive in the mass scale of large traversable wormholes. The new geometry satisfies the quantum inequality concerning WEC violations and has the same advantages as the original Alcubierre spacetime.